graphics card. RAM is easier to upgrade later on if you have the funds, but the graphics card is usually with you for life.

4gb is enough for almost anything anyway. I've got 2 gbs on my "high end" laptop (M90) that is now obsolete, but I do full renderings, photoshop, video work, 3D, etc., etc. with no problems.

Make sure you have a good mouse, I love Logitech's laptop mouse (wasn't cheap and I've killed about 3 of them, but the ergonomics is fantastic). Also make sure you have an external hd to back things up to.

definitely a graphics card over ram, like trace said 4g is enough. some programs catia, ask for a 1gig graphic card for best results. dont know what programs you are using. try looking and making a computer on hp's website.

i just bought a quad processor, 4gb ram 1gig, 18.4" screen for maybe a hundred bucks more.

i would not recommend getting a dell studio 15. i bought one and it has many many issues.

some examples include:

-overheating when watching movies -- computer just shuts off
-volume turns up by itself sometimes
-the speakers are very very bad- can barely hear with it all the way up
-the computer has troubles turning back on after it goes into hibernation mode
-the battery life is horrible- maybe 2 hours tops
-computer has trouble with dvd's - many times it ejects the dvd spontaneously
- the media touch buttons at the top of the keyboard sometimes don't even work
- some usb devices can only work in certain ports -- very weird

i could probably list more problems if i thought a little harder.

if you want a dell i would recommend any of the precision workstations
i have the dell precision 410 i have never had any problems with it.
bought it 2 years ago for 1800 and i have used it for rendering, 3d programs, all kinds of adobe stuff, etc

if you are going to be doing a lot of rendering i would recommend getting more ram over getting a better graphics card

hope this helps

When did you get your dell studio 15 daveed? Dells brought out a new model 1555 in the last few months. I think the older models had lots of issues.

i bought mine in October 2008- hopefully they fixed all the bugs since then

i have a dell 1545 and runs great.... $500 at best buy.... use the rest of the cash for a larger monitor and keyboard and some inner upgrades if needed....

I have the recent model studio 15 and have not had any of the problems Daveed describes other than slowness coming out of hibernation, which I've experienced on every windows machine. Perhaps you should consider sending yours in for warranty service Daveed since some of those issues sound like more than just "bugs".

I considered some of the $500 laptops but decided 64 bit, discreet graphics and a higher resolution screen were worth the extra money, especially since I plan on keeping it 5 years.

You might want to check out the hp hdx 16 (laptop). The preconfigured model has a 1 gb graphics card, 4 gb ram, 16" screen, $999. I was also looking for a computer a few weeks ago and went with this one. So far, so good.